Date
5-22-2024
Department
Helms School of Government
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice (PhD)
Chair
Evaristus Obinyan
Keywords
Banyamulenge, persecution, Democratic Republic of Congo, perceptions of police, minority groups, immigrants
Disciplines
Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
Recommended Citation
Sebahizi, Fidele Nkomezi, "Banyamulenge Immigrants' Perceptions of Police in the United States: A Qualitative Study" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5642.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5642
Abstract
The Banyamulenge are Congolese from South Kivu province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). While research on different minority groups worldwide is prominent, research on the Banyamulenge remains scarce. This study attempts to close this void in literature. The Banyamulenge's ill-treatment was evident during the colonial period, before the DRC’s independence. It stemmed from various ideologies, including the Banyamulenge's denial of being native Congolese. The DRC is a country inhabited by numerous tribes linked to neighboring countries, sharing languages and cultures. Like many other Congolese, the Banyamulenge were on the Congolese territory before the Western colonizers' arrival before 1885. Due to several reasons, they came from different territories of the region many decades before the 1885 Berlin Conference that set current African countries' boundaries. Some Congolese authorities have played a vital role in instigating hatred among Congolese groups toward Banyamulenge, particularly for political reasons. The research aims to raise awareness of the Banyamulenge's persecution in their country and contributes to the existing literature on the immigrants' perceptions of police in the United States. I studied Banyamulenge immigrants' perceptions of police in the United States. The study utilized a qualitative research design and explored the in-depth lived experiences of ten participants in the Congo and United States. The participants lived in the United States and shared experiences from 1998 detention centers in Lubumbashi and other regions in DRC. The study used participants' interviews to collect data, and the analysis was based on the coding of such interviews.
